American Express Company's 2Q Results: Postgame Scorecard

American Express Company's (NYSE:AXP) profit climbed in the second quarter, topping analysts' expectations.

Earnings and Revenue The estimates of 18 analysts ranged from profit of $1 to profit of $1.15. The company announced EPS of $1.15 a share versus the $1.09 a share estimate.

The company's net income for the quarter rose 0.6% to $1.34 billion.

Company Fundamental Trends Last quarter marked the third in a row of rising net income.

History Against Expectations The company has now topped analyst estimates for at least the last four quarters. It beat by 7 cents in the first quarter, 4 cents in the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year and 7 cents in the third quarter of the last fiscal year.

Official Comment: "Consumer, small business and corporate cardmember spending, along with the business volumes generated by our network of bank partners, remained healthy despite a very uneven economy," said Kenneth I. Chenault, chairman and chief executive officer. Overall cardmember spending rose seven percent, or nine percent adjusted for foreign currency translations. That's slower than the increases we've seen in the recent quarters, but it comes on top of a very strong performance a year ago, and continues to grow faster than most of our large issuer competitors. The cardmember loan portfolio grew four percent, and credit indicators, which were excellent at the start of the year, improved even further this quarter. Given the uncertain economic outlook, we remained vigilant in managing discretionary expenses but continued to make substantial investments in marketing initiatives and leverage our loyalty programs to connect millions of consumers and businesses around the world. This helped to continue strengthening our relationships with merchants and cardmembers at a time when mobile and digital technologies are opening up a range of new possibilities."

Estimates provided by Zacks Investment Research and company fundamentals from Xignite Financials.